Over the Hill and Through the Woods to Grandmother’s House We Go

16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Friday, November 24, 1911: Instead of having classes all day today we took an hour off and had something more interesting which was reciting and the like. I said a recitation that I said last year. Of course it was recognized at once. I wish we would have something like this every month at least. It relieves the monotony.

Recent photo of the house that Grandma lived in during her later years. When I was a child I lived on a farm on the other side of the hill from this house.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

In 1911 Thanksgiving was on the very last day in the month—November 30.

Thanksgiving is a time to spend with family—sharing memories and telling the old family stories. So on this Thanksgiving Day in 2011, I’d like to share my memories of Thanksgiving when I was a child. I’m thinking back to a time about midway between when Grandma kept her diary and now.

Each Thanksgiving, a little after noon, my family piled into our blue Dodge Polara—and Dad drove us the mile or so across the hill to Grandma’s house while my brother and I sang at the top of our lungs:

Over the hill and through the woods

To Grandmother’s house we go.

The horse knows the way to carry the sleigh

Through the white and drifted snow.

Over the hill and through the woods

To Grandmother’s house we go.

For this is Thanksgiving Day.

When we got to Grandma’s house my brother and I rushed inside to see all of our cousins. I told the rest of my Thanksgiving day story in a previous post. Click the link below to read it.

I’ve also heard the song sung using the words, “Over the river and through the woods. . .”, but our family went over a hill to get to our grandmother’s home so we always sang “over the hill and through the woods.”